Explore the first foundation pillar of DevOps, Culture

The first pillar in our holistic view of DevOps is Culture. Culture is an essential foundation to DevOps because it requires a growth and continuous learning mindset to succeed. Leadership support is one of the critical elements to its success.

What is culture?

For our purposes, culture is the social heritage of a group. It's a pattern of responses discovered, developed, or invented during the group's history of handling problems that arise from interactions among its members, and between them and their environment.

Culture determines:

• What is acceptable or unacceptable.
• What is important or unimportant.
• What is right or wrong.

Thinking theory of constraints

The theory of constraints is a methodology for identifying and removing constraints (also referred to as bottlenecks) that limit throughput. In practice, start by identifying the most important factor that stands in the way of achieving a goal. Work to minimize that factor until it's not a limiting one anymore.

Balancing alignment and autonomy mindsets

It’s necessary to achieve a balance between alignment and autonomy. Too much alignment leads to less innovation, less motivation, and less collaboration. Too much autonomy leads to more chaos, confusion, and conflict, while also leading to less consistency.